2024 Terret Noir
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The Tablas Creek Vineyard 2024 Terret Noir is our ninth varietal bottling of this rarely-seen Châteauneuf-du-Pape grape, propagated from budwood cuttings from the Château de Beaucastel estate.
While we have also begun using Terret Noir in our red blends, it is a fascinating grape on its own, unlike anything else from the Rhône. As a varietal bottling, we feel it expresses well what our 1904-edition French ampelography calls its "qualities of lightness, freshness, and bouquet".
Tasting Notes
A spicy, piney nose with cranberry and dried strawberry notes. On the palate, surprisingly grippy, with watermelon rind, pomegranate, and pink peppercorn notes, and lively acids. Unique and fun.
Technical Details
Appellation
- Adelaida District Paso Robles
Technical Notes
- 12.0% Alcohol by Volume
- 175 Cases Produced
Blend
- 100% Terret Noir
Certifications
Recipes & Pairings
Recipe Suggestions
Food Pairings
- Dried sausages
- Salty cheeses
- Santa Maria tri tip
- Coq au vin
Production Notes
Terret Noir is a little-known blending grape from the south of France; in addition to being one of the permitted grapes in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, it was once (before 1850) the most planted variety in the department of Herault. The half-acre that we planted here in Paso Robles is California's first. Terret Noir is a large-berried grape that produces wines with pale color, good acidity, and a spicy, floral, earthy wildness.
The 2024 vintage began with our second consecutive wet winter, giving the vines good reserves for the growing season. After a normal budbreak and a cool first half of the summer, those reserves were tested by our warmest-ever July and above-average temperatures through October. That led to a compressed harvest that was largely done by the second week of October and yields roughly 20% below our long-term averages. The low yields and warm year combined to produce fruit with intense flavors and noteworthy vibrancy.
The Terret Noir grapes were grown on our Regenerative Organic Certified™ and biodynamic estate vineyard.
The fruit was destemmed and fermented on the skins for two weeks in a 1-ton microfermenter, punched down twice daily, to extract maximum flavor from this thin-skinned grape. Only native yeasts were used. After two weeks, the berries were pressed and this was combined with the free-run juice into neutral oak barrels. The Terret for our single-varietal bottling was selected for its balance of juiciness and tannic grip, were aged in neutral barrels until their bottling in Feb 2026.